Sender: unknown
Origin: unknown
Received: 15 October, Thursday
Decrypted message reads:
My dear Mother and Father,
I am sorry I could only speak briefly when you called earlier. Although I am happily in good health and mainly good spirits, I am heavily overextended at present. I look forward to speaking at length when time permits.
You have surely read both my account and Ms. Haupenstaat’s version of the events of this past Monday. I am writing to you now in strict confidence to tell you of the one element of the story in which she and I both lied to the conclave. I would not burden you with this knowledge except that I anticipate needing your advice in the near future. Destroy this message after you have read it.
The Waking Guardians whom Darcy had captured were not killed in the building collapse. Brook and I were able to free them from their bonds and bring them into the protective shield with us. I have omitted this fact from my retelling for a variety of reasons.
First of all (and this is a development that the human bard would have described and an “improbable fiction”), one of the girls was, much to both my and Brook’s amazement, Brook’s own younger sister. I learned in the course of events that Brook’s sister—Chelsea Haupenstaat—had been acting strangely and secretively for the past two months, but Brook had misinterpreted the cause of her conduct.
Apparently, with so many thousands of their descendants populating the world, the Waking Guard long ago ceased passing their responsibilities parent to child in preference for seeking out worthy individuals who showed particular strength. Chelsea and her classmate Deena Markowitz (both sixteen years old) were chosen by an ageing pair of guardians—a married couple who teach biology and Russian at their high school. After judging the girls worthy, the two guardians awakened the latent powers within their young protégées. The girls were of course inexperienced and untried, but when the threat from Darcy’s power play became evident it was they who held the scepters of guardianship. Thus, they considered it their duty to stop her. I do not know what the Waking Guard believes its precise role to be in this strange new world order, but I am convinced that their intentions are at least benevolent.
These two girls were reluctant to speak to me about the Waking Guard (understandable, after their reception from my fiancé), but I negotiated a meeting in the near future with one of their mentors—on the condition that I not alert “the rest of my kind” of their presence. I agreed. If news of my indiscretion comes to light I dearly hope that the conclave considers this deception a necessary step in the useful enterprise of learning the truth about our erstwhile protectors.
As you know, the conclave decided this morning to confer upon me the title of head of household. How very strange it seems, to be indirectly responsible for the demise of my… my wife, since we had spoken vows before she died… of my wife and my in-laws, and yet to nonetheless inherit their lofty position. Obviously, the evidence that the three of us have collected, plus Brook’s testimony, have made it very clear to the conclave that my actions most likely saved them their own positions of power.
I am most relieved to be alive, and no longer subject to the whims of that woman. However, I am surprised by how complicated and potentially dangerous my position remains. I will come to you for advice at my first opportunity. For now there is much to do as I rebuild my holdings.
I remain only yours,
Da’ashalenne
(Continue to Brook's blog.)
